


Forewarned is Forarmed

by ScribbleJotterAmy



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 10:36:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7219042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribbleJotterAmy/pseuds/ScribbleJotterAmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weyrwoman Saella summons Ingva from her weyrling training.  A rather unusual set of circumstances are combining, and the young weyrwoman must be prepared for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forewarned is Forarmed

Forewarned is Forearmed

 

“You sent for me Weyrwoman?” Ingva asked as she was permitted to enter Saella’s quarters by Mossath the senior queen in High Reaches. 

“Yes.” The rake thin older woman said brusquely. “Come. Sit down.”

Ingva made her way to the seat opposite the weyrwoman’s desk, sat where indicated and folded her hands neatly in her lap waiting to be told why she had been summoned.

The weyrwoman scrutinised Ingva through narrowed eyes the creases and lines on her face deepening with a scowl. She looked forbidding to Ingva who sat up straighter, trying to look like she wasn’t exhausted from the constant chores that came with caring for a weyrling dragon that had grown almost exponentially since her hatching, but was as yet unflighted, and unable to hunt or go between.

The weyrwoman made a humph sound “I hear your queen is doing well, and you are a quick learner. That is to the good.”

Ingva nodded, still not sure why she’d been summoned. Did the weyrwoman sound worried? Or was she imagining it in her exhaustion.

“I don’t normally pull weyrlings from their training, least of all queen riders who require more training than most, but needs must, and you are to not utter a word of what I am about to tell you to your fellow weyrlings.

“I understand.”

“I doubt it,” Saella said “but you will soon enough. In two sevendays there will be a threadfall over High Reaches.”

Ingva did not understand the significance. There had been threadfall over High Reaches every few days since the Pass had begun barely half a turn ago. She kept silent hoping the weyrwoman would enlighten her. 

The woman noted the girls polite confusion “more specifically, it will be falling directly over the weyr.”

“Oh.” That couldn’t be a good thing from the way the woman said it.

“This presents an unprecedented problem. It is very unfortunate that your class are in the window where your dragons are unflighted, We will be able to remove the greens and blues to another weyr temporarily but the bronzes and browns and Brynth are too large to carry, and are not yet strong enough for the required flight.”

“No ma’am.”

The weyrwoman paused, “Do you know what happens to a dragon that cannot fly with thread above them girl?”

Ingva thought. Being hold bred during interval that had lasted over four hundred turns she’d never heard of such an occurrence. She assumed all of the dragons that could flew fall, and those that were ill or too young stayed indoors just like the holders did. She said as much.

“Hmm. If only it were that simple. Dragon instinct is very strong. Even unflighted dragons want to fight thread. They do not cope well with being restricted indoors at such a time, it’s particularly bad when thread is directly over their heads we have discovered.”

Ingva put the pieces together, an injured dragon…or a weyrling dragon for that matter wanting to fight thread when they weren’t capable…the injuries would be horrendous, and if the hatchlings tried to go between… Her face paled as exhaustion was replaced by cold fear and she looked at the weyrwoman her eyes wide.

“I see you understand the significance. What you do not know, and what will not pass your lips beyond this room is that the last time thread fell directly over a weyr, Fort lost over three quarters of their weyrlings because they went into a frenzy. I will NOT let that happen here.”

Ingva took some steadying breaths. So THAT had been the disaster that had overtaken Fort Weyr. Rumours had been rife, but no-one knew the truth of what had happened. She’d thought it had been a bad threadfall with the wings as green as they were. She couldn’t live if Brynth was hurt, or worse, died. She just couldn’t. But how were they to protect the dragons if they couldn’t fly or be carried somewhere safe?

“Was telling me this why I summoned weyrwoman?”

“Yes. I’m going to be requesting the aid of the other weyrwomen just in case, but you are going to be experiencing the brunt of this, I want you prepared. As such, I’m going to train you on the control of your own dragon and of others through her. I don’t normally pass this on until you have graduated. It is not an ability to be used lightly. If you use it indiscriminately, and abuse my trust in training you early it won’t just be me who you will have to face, is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am.” The threat was more than plain enough: to be held on trial for abuse of power or rank or promise was punishable by censured at the annual conference of weyrwomen, by the weyrwomen. Records she had studies as part of her weyrwoman training stated that even the mildest of punishments for misdemeanours handed down by a weyrwoman’s peers were harsh and unpleasant. It was not something Ingva wanted to have happen in her first year as a weyrwoman – or ever.

“Good.” The weyrwoman handed her a record hide. “Read this. Let no one else see it. You start practicing with Nandria and Rannath as soon as Brynth wakes.”

“Yes ma’am.”


End file.
